Resource management decisions influence not only the output of the economy but
also the distribution of utility between groups within the community. The theory of
Benefit Cost Analysis provides a means of incorporating this distributional change
through the application of distributional or welfare weights. This paper reports the
results of research designed to estimate distributional weights suitable for inclusion in
a Benefit Cost Analysis framework. The findings of a choice modelling experiment
estimating community preferences with respect to intergenerational utility distribution
are presented to illustrate this innovative application of a stated preference technique.
